Welcome home banners greet British Mafia wife

The family of a British woman accused of being a Mafia godmother have expressed their relief that she has been released from prison in Italy and is back home in the UK after a plea bargaining deal in which she was given a suspended jail sentence.

Ann Hathaway, a mother-of-two from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, was freed on Monday after agreeing a plea bargain in which she admitted Mafia association. She had been due to stand trial, accused of running her husband Atonio Rinzivillo's mob empire while he was serving 30 years for murder and drug-trafficking.

The only clue that she had returned was the four foil Welcome Home banners taped to the front of her house by wellwishers. No one was answering the door, but an array of greeting cards could be seen through the venetian blinds.

At her father's home her sister-in-law, Michelle Hathaway, said yesterday: "She is absolutely thrilled to be back. Naturally, we are all relieved that she is back. She is not going to be speaking to anyone about it. She has done something with Panorama, but that's about it."

Hathaway, 44, will live with her two daughters, Giada, five, and Gemma, 19. Her solicitor, Anthony Raymond, said he had not yet spoken to his client since she had returned to the UK. "I have no idea what my client's position is," he said.

Hathaway was arrested by officers from Scotland Yard's extradition unit on January 18. Italian prosecutors claimed she was acting as a messenger between her husband in prison and the outside world and charged her with mafia association.

During the extradition hearing in London in March she protested her innocence. She was held in isolation at the Agrigento jail in Sicily and was due to stand trial as one of 88 people accused of Mafia activities.

Property and businesses valued by police at €20m (£13.6m) were seized in Italy. But she agreed a plea bargain in which she admitted Mafia association and was given a two year suspended jail sentence, prosecutor Nicola Marino said.

Speaking to journalists in Italy following her release, Hathaway said: "This experience has destroyed me. In Agrigento jail I was kept in isolation and only had a shower three times a week. But the worst thing was the isolation."

Mr Marino said: "She admitted the facts of Mafia association. It was difficult for her to do otherwise because it was all on tape from the intercepted telephone conversations."